Wow. This is meticulously coded -- no bugs that I could find, other than the, eeagh, scads of beetles. A few bits, especially the descriptions in the prologue of the game, seemed a little overwritten; they were metaphorical enough that I had a hard time telling what they meant, in a strange environment where these metaphors could have been literally true.

I'm not sure I would have thought of the way to kill the ghoul on my own, and the hint system sometimes told me everything but the one fact I really needed, which forced me to use the walkthrough more than I would have liked. In particular, I didn't grasp what the significance of reading the book was. I thought I should read it some more, in order to find out details about these runes, but that was no go. I didn't realize that just knowing they were protected by a glamour would be enough to let me destroy them.

But these quibbles are all on the minor end. This is not only technically proficient, it has a number of touches that show how much the author was paying attention: transition text between locations, changes in description reflecting what I have done, a number of actions accounted for that I wouldn't have thought of, and so on.

My chief complaint is that it is really disgusting and rather depressing as well. I badly wished for some way to comfort Rykhard, but no way is forthcoming. (This is not really a flaw in the game, since the author clearly meant it this way, but I did not come out of the experience with a happy smile.) I was pleased, though, that the author had indeed programmed a reaction for my attempts to hug him. And it was a relief to get rid of the idol at the end.

My final rating wasn't as high as it might have been because of the overwritten moments and the fact that it made me go UGH so much.

Baluthar Awards

8^th place on the 2003 Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (9th Edition).